This chapter marks the end of Volume 2. There will be a short break before Vol 3. A week maybe? Two weeks? (Okay, maybe not 2 weeks :p )Not sure but I'll want to get some stuff sorted out and create a general idea of where it should be heading before I start writing again.

Enjoy the chapter~

When I got back to the safe room, I found Pauli munching on a piece of bread while sitting at the side with her back against the wall. She got up as she saw me and came over.

"You were fighting the boss?" (Pauli)

"Yeah. It was a good fight." (Me)

"What kind of boss was it?" (Pauli)

I could see a bit of excitement in her eyes.

"A white skeleton knight. It was just like any other white skeleton, just with armor and a sword." (Me)

Pauli's eyes seemed to shine more.

(Is she a kid?)

"You're one to say. You were practically jumping up and down in excitement saying you wanted to fight the boss." (Trichia)

(..... I choose my right to remain silent.)

I showed Pauli the new

shield I had gotten from the boss. She seemed even more excited. She didn't have the appraisal skill so I told her about the [Spike Out] skill and she

used it, though it retracted after 10 seconds. Seems like Pauli never put a

single point in INT.

Anyways, since we were here and Shirley had yet to wake up, we decided to take the shield for a test run and train Pauli at the same time. This time I was going to act as a complete support and only get involved if I deemed the situation necessary.

I was obviously NOT going to let her battle the boss, so we came out of the safe room from the same narrow passage we had gotten in. With a stroke of luck, we found our target immediately. A [Lesser White Skeleton] was there at a distance of about 10 metres. Due to the small distance, it noticed us too and charged at us immediately.

Pauli instantly moved in to intercept. She was equipped with the spike shield as the only weapon.

As the first attack came, she dodged to the side trying not make any big movements. She was probably trying to imitate me and was able to pull it off half-successfully. Seeing an opening after the skeleton's attack, she rammed the shield into the ribs of the skeleton causing it to fall backwards. Without wasting the opportunity, she quickly made 3 swift strikes at the knee joint and backed off. She used good hit and run tactics at the moment and as a result her enemy was now crippled. The skeleton now got up, half crawling-half hopping towards Pauli. But there was another problem. Even though it was slower, it became harder to dodge because now it didn't(couldn't) come rushing in but slowly and right at its target. Pauli took the right approach and moved around in circles to find another opportunity but the status quo maintained. Unfortunately, her opponent was an undead so dragging the fight out was the worst thing you could possibly do so trying to find the right opportunity against a tireless opponent was hard. Still, Pauli kept moving around in circles. This went on for about a minute before finally fed up, she rammed the shield in the skeleton's face... but it was a mistake. Since the skeleton was leaning forward, it didn't fall on its back and grabbed the shield instead. Pauli tried to shake the skeleton off but it kept on and creeping in slowly, it managed to grab Pauli's arm behind the shield.

She seemed to panic and moved the skeleton along with the shield in a circular arc, building up a lot of momentum to slam it into the walls of the dungeon.

*bam*

A loud noise reverberated in the dungeon upon the impact but the skeleton hadn't let go and I noticed Pauli flying in a similar manner to what she did to her enemy. The skeleton too seemed to make use of the continuation of the momentum to try and slam Pauli into the wall while using itself as a pivot.

(Shit!)

That was dangerous! Extremely dangerous! If she hit the wall like that there was high chance she would die instantly losing many levels in the process.

I quickly accelerated to my max speed and reached just in time to act as a cushion between Pauli and the wall.

"Ughh..." (Me)

It hurt. Alot! I collided with the wall at my top speed and at the same time, had Pauli crash into me. I definitely should have lost a lot of HP from that but the good part was that Pauli was safe......or not.

As I recovered from the aftereffects of the hit, I noticed Pauli on the ground writhing in pain with the skeleton creeping in on her. Then I noticed my own condition.

I was stuck in the wall.

.

.

.

"Fuck this shit!" (Me)

With a swift pull, I freed myself and jumped over onto the skeleton breaking its ribs and finally putting an end to the fight.

Pauli was still on the ground, so I picked her up and moved over to the safe room. On the way, she managed to tell me that she had 300 HP and losing at the rate of 2 HP per second.

"She's bleeding somewhere. If you don't stop it, her HP will drop to zero soon." (Trichia)

Right in came Trichia's voice, notifying my of the circumstances. From what they said, she probably had somewhere between 2 to 3 minutes left.

I picked up my pace and safely made it to the safe room but another problem posed itself.

In front of me was Pauli, in a critical state and bleeding out from somewhere. It was obvious what I needed to do but....

(Do I... take off her clothes?)

*gulp*

What other method did I have to find the bleeding!? I already had a general idea from the wet feeling at her back but time was running out and I didn't have any other options. I could have gotten her to Shirley but it was a risk that I wasn't willing to take.

I lifted Pauli's back to get her in a sitting position and grabbed her shirt from the bottom ends and started taking it off. When I was halfway done, the shirt coverted the whole of her head and her hands were hanging straight, which was when I realised my mistake. I took off her shirt from the front. And. She didn't have a bra on.

Now, in front of me were 2 round mounds. Even though it was virtual reality, I didn't doubt that they were as pretty as the original.

.

.

.

I don't know how much time I spent staring staring before I came back to my senses.

(What the fuck am I doing!?)

Hoping Pauli didn't realise what I was just doing, I quickly moved over to her back and found the wound. It wasn't anything big but right now it was anything but small.

I took out some water and some alcohol that I stored from Shirley's inn. Pauli moaned from the pain when I disinfected the wound and I got distracted again.

(Focus idiot! She's gonna die!)

I slapped myself with my left hand to snap myself back to reality.

I didn't have any bandages so I tore out a piece of my shirt and quickly washed it and tightly wrapped it on her wound.

(That should stop the bleeding.)

I finally sighed in relief. Pauli shouldn't lose anymore HP.

It was just now that I realised my own state. I was covered in blood: my hands, clothes and even my face(I could atleast see my nose). I was so focused on Pauli that I didn't realise. Though the blood wasn't my own, it was Pauli's. I was sure of this since my HP was steadily increasing and not decreasing.

Then I realised another thing. Pauli's shirt was still half up and her breasts were in full view. I was probably too tired(mentally) so I forgot about it once I stopped the bleeding.

I was about to pull her shirt down, when I thought of something else and took it off completely instead.

Hey! Hey! I'm not a pervert! I didn't do it for that kind of a reason! Her shirt was dirty and covered in blood so I was going to wash it. I took out one of Shirley's gowns from my inventory to put in on her. I had practically everything that Shirley owned in my inventory, so I also took out her bed.

I somehow managed to get Pauli into the gown with one hand as I had to hold her up with the other. That done, I put her on the bed to let her rest. I didn't know whether she had logged out but she hadn't spoken a single word since after she told me about her constant HP decrease.

NOW I was finally done. And right then, came out Shirley.

"AAAAAAHH!!!!" (Shirley)

She screamed when she saw us and came running.

(Oh crap. She's probably misunderstanding something from Pauli's change of clothes and the bed.)

"No. No. No. No." (Shirley)

While saying that she started taking off my clothes.

"Wh..what are you doing?" (Me)

"Th..there's s..so much b..blood! No. No. No. You c...can't die! I w..won't let you!" (Shirley)

(Okay she definitely is misunderstanding, though its different from what I thought.)

I tried to calm her down but she was going on in a frenzy and since my leather jacket was already off(I took it off when I needed to tear off a piece of my shirt to wrap around Pauli's wound), Shirley was attacking my shirt. And since I was resisting, it tore off more and completely so now my upper body was bare.

Carefully inspecting, when she didn't find any wounds, she started undoing my pants. This was going a little out of control as she wasn't listening to a thing I said and just kept mumbling "I wont let you die." Without any other options, I restrained her in a hug and whisperped in her ear while caressing her hair.

"Shh... It's alright. Noone's gonna die." (Me)

"B..but the b..blood?" (Shirley)

"It's not mine, it's Pauli's. She was......." (Me)

I told her what happened.

.

.

.

She was sniffling at first but seemed to regain her composure as my story went on.

After I finished telling her of the incidents, she seperated from me but still kept close.

Now, she was standing right in front of me while looking down, so I couldn't see her expression.

"You won't leave me right?" (Shirley)

She said in a weak tone but I could atleast tell she wasn't crying anymore.

"I wont ever leave..mumhh" (Me)

Shirley sealed my lips with her own before I could finish.

(What!?)

Shirley had her eyes closed and her hands on my cheeks. I could tell this because MY eyes were wide open in surprise. But inadvertantly, they started closing by themselves and my hands found their way to her waist. I don't know how much time passed before a voice snapped us back to reality.

"Ahem." (?)

My eyes opened suddenly and my lips seperated from Shirley's. I took my hands off her waist and looked behind and found Pauli sitting upright looking at us.

She got up and off the bed.

"Pauli, I..mummhh" (Me)

This time it was Pauli who sealed my lips.

(WHAT!?)

"*whistle* Talk about sudden development." (Trichia)

I couldn't calm down this time since I was conscious of Shirley standing right behind me.

(Un)Fortunately, Pauli seperated after a brief moment.

"Thanks for saving me." (Pauli)

My mind was still in a frenzy as it couldn't possibly register the events that happened just now.

Pauli and Shirley seemed to share a look and both took one of my hands to lead me to the bed.

Whatever happened next... Let's omit that.

"Wait! Let me get the camera ready!" (Trichia)